


Will You Remember Me?

by shinychimera



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: AU, Apocalypse, M/M, Mind Meld, Multiple Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-22
Updated: 2011-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-19 16:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/203034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinychimera/pseuds/shinychimera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim and Bones and Spock at the end of the world.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="u">Teaser</span>
  <br/>
  <i>Bones turned that bitterly dark gaze on him, and Jim stared back flatly, almost able to hate him for the inevitable back-biting. There wasn't anything to argue about, not anymore, but Bones wouldn't be Bones if he didn't offer up his best defense, snapping and snarling to the very end. And Jim supposed, dropping his eyes to watch the black dust sift around his boots, that it didn't matter whether his vitriol hurt anybody now.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Will You Remember Me?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misfitdauphine](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=misfitdauphine).



> For the [](http://community.livejournal.com/jim_and_bones/profile)[**jim_and_bones**](http://community.livejournal.com/jim_and_bones/) community's "The End" flash challenge.
> 
> A fill for misfitdauphine's prompt: Don Henley's "[The End of the Innocence](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLONgF8a_Ig)"
> 
> ([lyrics](http://www.metrolyrics.com/end-of-the-innocence-lyrics-don-henley.html))

" _Remember_ ," the elder Spock said, pressing his fingers to Bones' face under a yellow-gray sky.

Jim stood apart, but the sad depths of that rumbling voice pulled him involuntarily around from the shuffled ash where he'd stumbled to a halt. He watched Bones stiffen, assaulted for the first time by memories of a life he never got to live.

The eye of Jim's mind burned with the afterimages of his own revelation: another time, another _timeline_ , where his days on this now-dead farm were long and carefree, rolling along beneath a deep blue sky, both a mother and a father close at hand to teach him how friendly, how _exciting_ the universe was.

Spock tenderly released Bones, and held him upright. Bones' eyes stared off into the ashen clouds as he struggled to absorb the idea of growing up in the living green of a small town. Of being a simple country doctor with a beautiful daughter. Of leaving her behind on Earth with regret but not fear, to pursue a vocation among the peaceful stars.

They waited.

Bones turned his eyes to Spock first, aghast — not with the wounded betrayal of a child, but with the grim, sullen understanding of the old man he wasn't yet. Wouldn't be.

"That place, it's real?"

_...the clouds roll by...the tall grass waves in the wind..._

"Yes. Earth. As it should have been."

"And Vulcan." Jim's voice was as harsh as that of the ailing crows.

_...somewhere back there in the dust..._

"And Vulcan," Spock replied, with all the gravel of his billions of graves.

"And you think you can..." Bones turned his head and spat into the drifting ash. "Fix it somehow? Just euthanize this deformed little timeline you spawned?"

"Yes. Using the remaining energy from this universe, I can prevent it from ever occurring."

"Isn't that a logical _paradox_ , Mr. Spock?"

The white-haired Vulcan didn't answer, just looked into his eyes with sad and weary patience, as though it was the ten thousandth time Bones had said those words, or something like them.

"Assuming we believe your poisonous little fairy tale, _Daddy_ , tell me, how does that math go, exactly? After the first trillion or so, does the rest of the blood on your hands just not count?"

"They're going to die anyway, Bones." Jim waved a hand at what was left of his home, shattered and scorched by the indifferent might of an orbital sword, wielded by the exhausted wheelchair warrior that defended all Earth had left.

Bones turned that bitterly dark gaze on him, and Jim stared back flatly, almost able to hate him for the inevitable back-biting. There wasn't anything to argue about, not anymore, but Bones wouldn't be Bones if he didn't offer up his best defense, snapping and snarling to the very end. And Jim supposed, dropping his eyes to watch the black dust sift around his boots, that it didn't matter whether his vitriol hurt anybody now.

"When it's done," Spock said softly, "all of this will be washed away. You will be — you _are_ — happy in that place."

He could have told Spock it was the wrong thing to say.

"That's not a reassurance, you green-blooded jackass!" Bones took a step forward, fists clenched at his sides. "Did it ever occur to you that happy or not, he and I are _alone_ in that universe? That maybe  we _need_ to remember this?"

Jim walked back to Bones' side.

"Bones — Bones. Stop. We _will_ remember."

Spock's eyebrows protested, minutely, but he kept his mouth shut this time.

"Our energy's going to be part of that universe," Jim said. "Everything we've done, learned, sacrificed — loved. It won't be forgotten."

It wasn't enough, not really, and Bones knew better than anyone that happily ever after often failed. But his eyes softened and he reached out to touch Jim's battered cheek anyway.

Slowly, Jim pulled him into an embrace, and slowly, they sank to the tired earth together. Bones lowered his head back onto the ground, his long ragged hair spreading around him in a tangle. Jim laid next to him, nudging close for just one kiss, and then took a long last look.

Spock bowed his head, and said, " _Remember_."


End file.
